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Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid online attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“The government is looking around at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently